Politics on the Internet, 2004: A Webliographic Essay |
||||||||||||||
| This webliographic
essay is a guide to
political information on the Internet in the context of the 2004
presidential
campaign. It focuses on candidates’
Web pages,
Web logs, and Internet media. My observations and research began in
summer
2003 and continued up to the inauguration of George W. Bush. A study released Feb. 5, 2004 by George Washington University together with Roper ASW and Nielsen/NetRatings found that while only 7 percent of the population regularly visited online political and news Web sites, 69 percent of these "Online Political Citizens" were considered to be "Influentials," serving as opinion leaders in their communities. Only 10 percent of the general population are Influentials. About 60 percent of regular visitors to political Web sites have college degrees. [1] The number of Americans who visited online political and news Web sites undoubtedly increased as the election drew near. A 2003 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project looked at the "digital divide" and problems of access in the population. The survey found that "24 percent of Americans remain truly unconnected to the online world. They have never tried going online and are often quite removed from the connected population." [2] Older Americans, minorities, people with lower incomes and less education, and rural Americans are among groups of people who are less likely to use the Internet. However, "60 percent of non-users say they know of a place in their community where internet access is publicly available." [3] Candidate Websites Use of the Internet in the 2000 campaign foreshadowed the 2004 fundraising potential of the Internet. In the 2000 Republican primary, underdog populist candidate John McCain had almost exhausted his campaign money. But McCain won a surprise victory in New Hampshire and he capitalized on the resulting media interest by skillfully promoting his Web site. Once visitors had logged on to the Web site they were asked to make a donation to McCain's campaign. Taking advantage of the ease of making contributions, supporters donated an astonishing $2,000,000 in one week. [4] While McCain was unable to continue his winning streak, the fundraising genie was out of the bottle. In the Democratic primaries in 2003 Howard Dean energized voters with his views on the Iraq war, and with his critique of the Democratic Party. This, plus the intensity of a politically divided country and skillful use of the Internet by his campaign manager Joe Trippi, made Dean a phenomenally successful fundraiser -- with two record breaking quarters in 2003 [5] -- and a front runner in the race for the Democratic nomination. Conversely, John Kerry’s primary campaign got off to a slow start. Before the Iowa primary, Kerry’s campaign was so impoverished that he lent over $6 million of his own money to his campaign in order to remain solvent. After his wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, Kerry quickly triumphed over the competition. From March to May 2004 the Kerry campaign raised $100 million. Of this, $44 million was raised through the Internet, [6] mostly in small donations. The limit on individual donations is $2000, and in May the average donation from 90,000 contributions was $108 the Kerry campaign reported. [7] Compare this to Al Gore's campaign in 2000 which had only $9 million to spend from Super Tuesday in March to the convention in August. [8] Gore's online fundraising suffered from any of a number of factors: lack of excitement about the candidate, poor promotion of his Web site, or low voter interest in the election. However, a candidate’s Web site does more than collect money. A well designed Web site provides a candidate’s biographical and issue information, an opportunity to sign up for email newsletters, and promotes grassroots activity. On John Kerry's Web site supporters were encouraged to "Take Action" and link to the "Volunteer Center" where they would find the latest tools to "recruit other volunteers, raise money, plan and attend Kerry events, and participate in voter outreach activities." The Bush - Cheney Web site did all this, but it was more dynamic, that is, more interactive, more colorful, and had more video links. A dynamic Web site encourages return visits. The candidate's Web site is where supporters are urged to sign up for email newsletters. These newsletters provide supporters with news, and requests to donate to the campaign. Jakob Nielsen analyzes Bush and Kerry's newsletters in the last week of the campaign: Although I don't actually claim that Bush won purely because of usability, I do think that wise use of email newsletters contributed to his victory. I analyzed the email newsletters sent out by both candidates in the week prior to the election. The predominant theme of each message was distributed as follows:The email list is also important because it can be used to support candidates in other races that the list owner deems important. Howard Dean's Web site was an important part of his success. With little money, staff, and organization, Joe Trippi, a consultant for Dean, decided that the only way to win was to decentralize the campaign and let the momentum come from the grassroots efforts of supporters. [10] Trippi had read the progressive online Web journals or "blogs" (derived from Web logs), and sought the advice of some of the writers. "It was these people, such as Markos Moulitsas Zúniga of Daily Kos, Jerome Armstrong of MyDD, Matt Gross of Dean Nation, and Rick Klau of There Is No Spoon [a tech Web log], who advised the campaign to embrace the blog writers who were busy updating the Web every day with their latest commentaries on news, events, and media. From these early consultations also flowed the idea of facilitating face-to-face meetings by using Meetup." [11] Some of Dean's supporters were already using the Meetup Web site to get together in various cities. Meetup brings people together in small groups to talk about similar interests, anything from knitting to Star Trek, by setting the time and place -- often Starbucks -- and notifying the members of the interest group. As Joe Trippi reports in his book The Revolution Will not be Televised, he thought the Dean Web site needed to include a link to Meetup. Although other candidates had Meetup groups, Dean’s had the most supporters. When the link to Meetup was posted on Dean's Web site, the number of supporters who wanted to participate in gatherings jumped from about 500 to 2700 in various cities around the country. Trippi then negotiated a contract with Meetup to organize meetings for the campaign. When Dean attended his first Meetup he expected to see about 300 supporters, instead over 800 showed up. [12] Joe Trippi became Dean's campaign manager. The energy and publicity provided by the Internet community of Dean supporters created a powerful campaign tool, but the Internet alone was not enough to insure success. Joe Trippi recognized before the Iowa primary that the campaign was doomed but not, as some have stated, because the Internet had failed the Dean campaign. He stated that "our campaign has grown sick with all the symptoms of old politics: infighting and petty jealousy among the campaign staff, gaffes by the candidate, cannibalistic ads by the other Democratic contenders -- all of it beneath the steady eyes of the scavenger political press, always on the lookout for stray hunks of flesh. No, we're going down." [13] Ezra Klein, former Dean campaign worker, paints a somewhat different picture of the campaign in a review of Trippi's book, in Washington Monthly: The same new technologies that enabled Trippi to decentralize [the campaign] also shifted its internal balance of power, ceding Dean's identity and message in no small part to the die-hard activists who had made him the front-runner. But die-hards don't shrug their shoulders when their candidate zags; they yell and protest and try to drag him back. Trippi himself admits that Kate O'Connor and Dean eventually wanted to fire him because "[I]n their eyes, Dean had been swept up in the momentum of his own populist movement...was unable to leave the insurgent fire-brand behind and reposition himself as just another moderate Democrat"--an inability which proved fatal. [14]Dean’s Web site included Blog for America, where visitors to the site could read frequent entries by campaign writers, and respond with comments. The blog combined several important elements -- news and information, interactivity, and feedback -- in a way that encouraged a sense of belonging among the blog’s participants. A current version of Blog for America is linked to Democracy for America, a political action committee founded by Howard Dean. Dean's supporters can also keep in touch with each other on the blog Dean Nation, “dedicated to the spirit of the Dean Movement." And they can still gather together by finding Meetup groups for Democracy for America. In fact, Democracy for America was the top Meetup group in terms of members (Kerry in 2004 was second), as of Oct. 4, 2004. To view a selection of archived presidential candidate Web sites visit the Internet Archive WayBack Machine. The Internet Archive has been archiving Web sites on all topics since 1996 and now contains over 100 terabytes of information. The database is searchable by a Web site's URL in the WayBack Machine. Through collaborations with the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution, subsets for elections of 1996, 2000 and 2002 have been created. Political Web Logs A Web log, or blog, in its most elemental form is a "simple content management system to put diaries on the web in reverse chronological order." [15] Blogs began as a way for technology workers to disseminate information and advice quickly. Soon blogs covered every topic from personal journals to literature, art, car repair, gossip, and politics. In an article called "Web of Influence" in Foreign Policy, Daniel W. Drezner and Henry Farrell write: Their number has grown at an astronomical rate. In 1999, the total number of blogs was estimated to be around 50; five years later, the estimates range from 2.4 million to 4.1 million. The Perseus Development Corporation, a consulting firm that studies Internet trends, estimates that by 2005 more than 10 million blogs will have been created. Media institutions have adopted the form as well, with many television networks, newspapers, and opinion journals now hosting blogs on their Web sites, sometimes featuring dispatches from their own correspondents, other times hiring full-time online columnists. [16]The political blogosphere is divided into right and left viewpoints. This essay focuses on several influential political blogs and includes biographical information when it is available on the blog. All of the blogs highlighted in this essay have archives and some of them have search capability on the Web site, though Google also works. Each blog includes a list of links to other blogs called a blogroll. Keeping tabs on mainstream media has emerged as an important function of blogs. Ben Fritz, Bryan Keefer and Brendan Nyhan address this aspect of blogs in their book All the President's Spin. "Together, political blogs have helped to create a culture of fact checking that has served as a check on inaccuracy in the mainstream media. With bloggers sounding the alarm and spreading the word, deceptions have been exposed, myths explained, and falsehoods debunked in near-real time, helping prevent journalists and politicians from misleading the public. Blogs now regularly wring corrections from major media outlets. The format is also starting to have an effect on the mainstream press." [17] Talking Points Memo is a liberal blog by Josh Micah Marshall who is a contributing writer for the Washington Monthly, and a columnist for The Hill. His articles on politics, culture, and foreign affairs have also appeared in many other publications. He has a doctorate in American History from Brown University. Marshall's involvement in Trent Lott's resignation as U.S. Senate majority leader is often noted in discussions of blogs. At Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party, which was broadcast on C-Span, Trent Lott made remarks that were thought by many to indicate racist views. It was almost a non-issue in the mainstream press but Marshall and others wouldn't let it rest. Liberal columnist, Paul Krugman, wrote that Marshall "is must reading for the politically curious, and who, more than anyone else, is responsible for making Trent Lott's offensive remarks the issue they deserve to be." [18] Lott eventually resigned as majority leader. The "Campaign Desk" from Columbia Journalism Review composed a "short list of reporters who consistently rise above the superficial to do original and often insightful work." Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo was given honorable mention and was the only blog that CJR cited. [19] University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds' right-leaning blog Instapundit, "primarily a guide to content on the web," began in Aug. 2001 and covers politics and other topics. The blog’s popularity increased dramatically after Sept. 11 when readers turned to the Internet for additional news. When the war with Iraq began, Glenn Reynolds became known as a “war blogger” for his support of the war. In February 2004, Wired magazine named Instapundit the world's most popular blog. [20] The term "instalanche" was coined when large numbers of Instapundit readers clicked on the blog's links to other Web sites. Glenn Reynolds' writes a second blog, GlennReynolds.com, on MSNBC's Web site. When the accusations by the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth appeared in a book and television ads and on talk radio, the blogosphere erupted with partisan viewpoints. Blogs on the right supported the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and debated whether Kerry had legitimately earned his medals. Reynolds wrote on Aug. 12, 2004 about the fact that Kerry claimed to be in Cambodia on Christmas 1968, but his campaign eventually conceded that this was not quite accurate. Reynolds comments on the press coverage: NOTHING ON THE KERRY/CAMBODIA STORY in either the New York Times or the Washington Post this morning -- I just searched both sites. Even though the Kerry Campaign has now admitted that Kerry's oft-repeated stories about being in Cambodia on Christmas Day, 1968 aren't true. The Post did find the time to condemn the Swift Boat vets, though, without admitting that one of their charges has already been borne out.[21] The
New
York Times, perhaps stung by criticism from readers, blog writers,
and others, had appointed Daniel
Okrent it's Public Editor. Okrent was charged with "evaluating,
criticizing and
otherwise commenting on the paper's integrity,"
[22] He presented his view (Sept. 12,
2004) of The Times coverage of the Swift Boat Veterans
for Truth ads based on Times news articles he had read while on
vacation in August. Here's what I learned: In a series of ads, a group of Vietnam veterans who served with or near John Kerry in the Mekong Delta charged him with several deceptions about his war service. The ads were financed and produced by a number of people, many of them Texas Republicans, with a connection to President Bush or his associates. One key figure, however, was a political independent who voted for Al Gore in 2000 and has been challenging Senator Kerry's post-service condemnations of certain American practices in Vietnam for three decades. From what The Times's news coverage told me, official records contradict the central charges leveled in the ads. However, it is not accurate to say, as Senator Kerry has, that he spent Christmas 1968 in Cambodia. If the summary is wrong, The Times erred. If it's accurate, the paper did a fine job. [23]Blogs can also mobilize their readers. One example is Josh Marshall's efforts to stop the partisan Sinclair Broadcasting Group from attempting to influence the election. Referring to a news report that appeared in the Los Angeles Times, [23.5] Marshall posted an entry on Talking Points Memo that Sinclair was ordering its 62 local stations to preempt normal broadcasting a couple of days before the election and to air an anti-Kerry film "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal." After getting input from readers on how to persuade Sinclair to stop requiring its stations to broadcast the documentary, Marshall decided to ask readers to write Sinclair's local advertisers in order to encourage them to drop their Sinclair accounts. Pressure from readers of Talking Points Memo and other blogs mounted and advertisers began to cancel accounts. To read Marshall's posts on Talking Points Memo follow the search link on the Web site and type "Sinclair" in the search box or click on this link: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?search=sinclair Meanwhile, lawsuits and action by stockholders as well as some unions and pension funds caused Sinclair's stock to fall 15 percent in three days. Sinclair changed its broadcast to a less partisan documentary. [23.8] On the right, Power Line, a "group" blog, is written by John Hinderaker, a lawyer; Scott W. Johnson, an attorney and bank vice president, and Paul Mirengoff, an attorney. Both Hinderaker and Johnson are fellows of the Claremont Institute. Their articles have appeared in National Review, The American Enterprise, and other publications. Time Magazine featured Power Line in its year-end issue and highlighted Power Line's coverage of the CBS forged documents episode. When the CBS program 60 minutes presented a story on President Bush's National Guard service, blog writers broke the news that some of the documents used in the story may have been forged. Scott Johnson was one of the first with his post "The 61st Minute." "Johnson thought the memos looked odd -- they fit too neatly with an advertising campaign that he knew the Democratic National Committee would be unveiling shortly, attacking Bush's service record. So he wrote a few paragraphs about it, sprinkling in references to a site called freerepublic.com where another conservative lawyer, Harry MacDougald (a.k.a. Buckhead), had been arguing that the memos must be forgeries." [24] By the end of the day, about 500 sites had linked to Power Line. The analysis of blog writers on the right concluded that the documents were written on a computer that was invented after the documents' dates. Blog writers on the left countered with their own detailed analysis of typewriters and fonts that were in use at the time in order to support the authenticity of the documents. An independent investigation found, as reported by the Associated Press, "The network's drive to be the first to break a story about Bush's National Guard service was a key reason it produced a story that was neither fair nor accurate and did not meet CBS News' internal standards, the investigators said. Although the panel said it couldn't prove conclusively the documents were forged it said CBS News failed to authenticate them and falsely claimed an expert had done so when all he had done was authenticate one signature." [25] Four staffers lost their jobs as a result of the episode. Conservative columnist James Lileks writes of Time Magazine's choice of Power Line as "Blog of the Year:" "Time's choice sounds a little defensive, as if it had discovered that the best way to deal with the barbarians inside the gate is to grant them citizenship and hope they behave." [26] Left leaning blogs are contemptuous of Fox news (or "faux news") and talk radio shows. Most mainstream media is considered too liberal by the right-leaning blogs. However, the blogs on the left are not short of criticism of the "so called liberal press." Mainstream media responds by pointing out the lack of journalistic standards, and the potential for the rapid spread of misinformation on the Web. While misinformation is often found in the blogosphere, the theory is that more information will counter it. Two other influential conservative blogs are andrewsullivan.com and Oxblog. Andrew Sullivan’s biography on andrewsullivan.com lists many accomplishments, among them: a doctorate in political science from Harvard, the editorship of The New Republic from 1991 to 1996, and numerous published articles and books. Sullivan is openly gay, and was diagnosed HIV positive in 1993. His blog has sections on Homosexuality, Faith, Politics, Culture, People, and The War. Oxblog is written by three graduate students: Josh Chafetz, who received his doctorate in politics from Oxford and is currently a law student at Yale; David Adesnik, a graduate student in international relations at Oxford and fellow of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia; and Patrick Belton, a graduate student in international relations at Oxford. Oxblog was the only independent blog to cover both parties' political conventions. [27] Ann Marie Cox, former Round Rock, Texas resident, is the author of Wonkette a gossip blog that spares no one. Wonkette is one of several sites owned by entrepreneur Nick Denton. A Time Magazine article says of Denton's blogs “So far they aren't showing detectable signs of editorial corruption by their corporate masters, two of Denton’s blogs, gawker.com and wonkette.com are among the most corrosively witty sites on the Web -- but they’ve lost their amateur status forever.” [28] Many blog writers will occasionally post excerpts from email, but the software innovation that allows direct posting of comments enables readers to voice opinions and respond to other "commenters" thereby forming an online virtual community. One example on the left is Eschaton by Duncan Black who uses the pseudonym Atrios. The blog is commonly referred to as Atrios instead of Eschaton which refers to a complicated game that is part of the novel Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Posting readers' comments is important for political blogs, particularly liberal blogs, which have become activist on a grassroots (or netroots) level. An example of the success of netroots activism was the decision of General Wesley Clark to seek the Democratic presidential nomination. A Draft Clark movement gained momentum on the Internet, and activists and blog writers created the Draft Clark Web site. Matt Stoller, the writer of the Web site's blog, offered a witty, irreverent discussion of the campaign and was not afraid to poke fun at the online community and himself. He famously asked for comments from women who had a crush on General Clark. When the blog ceased many of its participants were dismayed. [29] Stoller has continued life in the blogosphere and is currently writing for Blogging of the President: 2004. In June 2001, Jerome Armstrong started the blog MyDD, “Due Diligence of Politics, Election Forecast & the World Today” (www.mydd.com). Several early contributors became prominent in politics on the Internet. Markos Moulitsas Zúniga was an early fan. Eventually Moulitsas started his own blog, Daily Kos. He still refers to Armstrong as his blogfather. Later Moulitsas joined Armstrong in a political consulting partnership called Armstrong Zuniga. Howard Dean hired them for a time as technical consultants, an action they disclosed to readers. Mat Gross, creator of the blog on Dean’s Web site, was another contributor to MyDD. Trippi describes meeting Mat Gross: "One day, soon after we'd moved to a larger quarters in a South Burlington office park, I looked up to see this tall young guy with an earring and a nearly shaved head wandering around the office. Security had just grabbed him and was hauling him away when he yelled out to me: 'Wait! I blog on MyDD.com!' This was, of course, the political Web site where I'd first heard about Meetup.com. 'You're hired!' I yelled, and they brought him back to me. ... Within 48 hours he had created Call to Action, the first-ever blog of any presidential campaign." [30] Call to Action eventually became Blog for America. Although the Dean campaign failed to bring him the nomination, netroots activity still flourishes on progressive blogs which tend to be more activist than conservative blogs by supporting their own causes or candidates. It is true that the Republican Party has strong grassroots political support, but activism is generally organized and promoted by the party in a top-down, message driven fashion. As a result the Republican Party is lacking in netroots activism. In contrast, progressive blogs offer informed debate on almost every move made by the Democratic Party. One post election topic is the selection of the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee; Howard Dean is in the running. Daily Kos is an example of a blog working as a netroots organization. According to a biography on the Web site, Moulitsas was born in Chicago, and then raised in El Salvador until civil war forced the family back to Chicago in 1980. At age 17, he joined the Army then subsequently received two bachelor's degrees and a law degree before going to work in the tech industry. In the 2004 campaign Daily Kos encouraged readers to donate to key state campaigns in order to elect Democrats to Congress with the goal of gaining a majority of Democrats in the senate and increasing the number of Democrats in the house. Democrat Stephanie Herseth of South Dakota narrowly defeated Larry Diedrich in a special election for South Dakota's one House seat when it was vacated due to the legal problems of U.S. Rep. William Janklow (R). Daily Kos readers provided Herseth with financial support and volunteers who traveled to South Dakota. Daily Kos featured key races of long shot candidates including Richard Morrison's bid to unseat Tom DeLay in Texas. Contributions from the Daily Kos community helped early on to set up an office and hire staff and later for television advertising. In theory, even if the long shot loses, his or her opponent needs to spend more on the campaign thereby reducing the amount the Republicans can spend on other candidates. Though informal, political blogs take time to write and research, and some blog writers are finding ways to make the effort profitable. Some blogs simply ask readers for donations. Andrew Sullivan asks readers for donations and in return contributors receive a “private weekly newsletter.” Most blog advertising business is conducted at Blogads where advertisers choose blogs based on the popularity of the blog and cost per week of advertising. The cost of the ad varies according to the location on the Web Page; ads near the top cost more. On Sept. 19, 2004 advertisers paid a top weekly price of $750 for an ad on Instapundit, and a top weekly price of $2250 for an ad on Daily Kos. According to Blogads, Daily Kos has replaced Instapundit for the highest amount of Web site traffic. The Web site Technorati has a list of 100 of "the most authoritative blogs, ranked by the number of sources that link to each blog." It is also possible to search the site to find out who is linking to individual blogs. Another feature of Technorati is a section on politics which lists "rising and falling links from authoritative political bloggers." As the presidential election neared, keeping up with traffic became a problem for some popular blogs. Moulitsas wrote on Oct. 8th, 2004 about Web site traffic during one of the Bush-Kerry debates: "Even now, at 9 p.m. Pacific Time I'm getting about 140,000 page views per hour. We started the day with two webheads and one database server (a killer machine we installed this morning). We installed a third webhead right before the debate. About 30 minutes into the debate, we knew that three wasn't enough, and we threw a fifth machine on our cluster." [31] While television viewing is not limited by the size of the audience -- the audience for the first Bush-Kerry debate was 63 million -- Kos added 3 more servers for a total of 8 on Oct. 31st. As a point of comparison the auction Web site eBay uses about 200 database servers and this doesn't include search systems. [32] Blogs are appealing to many people for a number of reasons. They are available any time of the day or night, appeal to a specific point of view and sometimes scoop the mainstream media. Blog writers announced John Kerry's selection of John Edwards as his vice presidential running mate hours before it was reported on CNN because two aviation blogs issued reports of crews adding decals to Kerry's airplane to include Edwards' name. Finding a forum, voicing dissent, and supporting a particular view has been an outlet for useful energy, but there is also a lot of anger in the blogs, sometimes resulting in shrillness and bruising commentary. Of course, "commenters" can chastise each others out-of-line comments. On Daily Kos "commenters" can rate each other and a low enough score will block an individual from commenting for a specified period of time. Bill Moyers talked about blogs on NPR's Fresh Air With Terry Gross. I think the Internet, the blogging, is the closest we've come in a long time to the history of the American media in the beginning, the American press. You know, in the 1820's, the 1830's all you needed to be a journalist was to buy a press. That's why they called them inkstained wretches, because they operated their own hand presses and for a little bit of money, you know, like Tom Paine and others, you could have your own press. ... After the revolution independent journalists, printers they called themselves, sprung up all over the country ... they were partisan by the way, they took sides vociferously ... but it was a healthy period of bombast in America in which people could sort out the information. I think the bloggers, then the websites, come close to that spirit of cacophony, to that democratic expression, that we had in the early part of this country. [33]Internet Media Howard Dean raised record amounts of money by skillfully using the Internet. However, a reversal of fortune can occur just as dramatically and be exacerbated by the speed of information transfer on the Internet. Conservative columnist James Lileks of Newhouse News Service writes about the outpouring of ridicule following Howard Dean's "rallying cry" to his supporters after he placed third in the Iowa caucuses. With a Mac or PC, Dean's
gonzo-charged exhortation
could be sliced, dissected, looped, set to music and distributed
nationwide in a day. Grassroots humiliation. And it was.
Disclosure: I assembled one of the more popular songs. Within 36 hours,
it had been mentioned by The
Washington Post and the Wall
Street
Journal;
it was played on NPR, Hugh Hewitt's nationally syndicated radio shows
in a hundred markets -- and even made MTV.com. I didn't mail the song
to
newspapers, or call up radio stations and offer payola. I simply
seeded the URL in the comments section of a well-read liberal Web log
and a well-read conservative one. And it was off to the races.
This
is how information works today: You can go from the bottom to the top
with
no friction whatsoever. [34]
Lilek’s Internet audio manipulation suggests another important fact about the Web: boundaries between traditional media and the Internet are starting to blur with the advent of online versions of newspapers and magazines, Internet only news sites such as Slate and Salon, television network and cable Web sites with video as well as text. Campaign advertising, once primarily the domain of television, has begun appearing on the Internet. Candidates' ads are placed on news and other Web sites with the goal of encouraging supporters to visit the candidates' Web sites and sign up for email or make a donation. Many of the same ads that appear on television are available on candidates’ Web pages or online news sites and C-Span. Television ads still have an advantage in that they reach passive viewers in their homes, but individuals must actively go to the Internet and link to the ads to view them. Advertising on the Internet progressed when the Bush campaign sent the first Web-exclusive ad to 6 million email recipients. Shortly thereafter the Kerry campaign responded by producing its own counter-ad and emailing the ad to 300,000 email recipients and asking each one to send the ad to 10 friends. Kerry hoped to make up for the small email list by using the multiplier advantage that Internet advertising provides. The multiplier effect can vastly increase Internet ads distribution. [35] Internet ads differ from TV ads in that the Federal Election Commission does not require the candidate to verbally approve the ad. Bush's ad did not carry the acknowledgment but Kerry's did. Kerry's ad might have been designed to be suitable for recycling to TV. [36] The Living Room Candidate is a comprehensive Web site for viewing presidential campaign commercials from 1952-2004. A product of the American Museum of the Moving Image, Living Room Candidate offers commentary on campaign ads. Under a new category, Desktop Candidate, there are sections on "Web Ads, 2004," "Shadow Campaign," "Candidate Websites," and "Online Resources" (links to presidential campaign advertising, analysis, and commentary). The section called "Shadow Campaign" describes the emerging influence of issue advocacy groups. "Political advertising by partisan groups not affiliated with the major parties, and grassroots efforts by individuals who are using the Internet to achieve wide distribution, are playing an increasingly important role in [the] presidential race, creating a 'shadow campaign' that exists outside of federal spending limits." [37] Two elements of the shadow campaign are Political Action Committees, and 527 groups -- named after a section from the tax code. PACs and 527s are playing a key role in this year's election by producing advertising to help elect or defeat candidates. According to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, PACs may receive up to $5,000 per year from an individual, other PACs, or party committees. Restricted donations are known as "hard money." In contrast, 527s may receive "soft money" or unrestricted donations. But they may not explicitly endorse a candidate or coordinate advertising with a candidate's campaign. [38]. Democrats have traditionally been more dependent on soft money than Republicans, so in this election 527s such as America Coming Together, Media Fund, and Moveon Voter Fund quickly moved in to offset the Republicans' significant financial advantage. One donor, the financier George Soros, donated roughly $23.7 million to Democratic 527s. [39] One Web site that keeps track of political donations is opensecrets.org from the Center for Responsive Politics. Republicans, hoping that the Federal Election Commission would pass a ruling limiting advocacy groups spending, did not pursue 527 financing aggressively. But in May 2004 the FEC chose to postpone a decision on 527s, leaving Republicans to hurriedly set up similar organizations. Progress for America formed its 527, the Progress for America Voter Fund. [40] One stipulation on television ads is that the 527 must not coordinate with the presidential campaign. Usually the 527s produce negative advertising leaving the campaign to present a more positive picture. But the conservative anti-tax PAC, Club for Growth, and its associated 527 fund were seeking to influence voters with their own agenda. Julia Malone of Cox News reports that during the Iowa primary, Club for Growth aired an ad featuring a couple suggesting that "Howard Dean should take his tax hiking, government expanding, latte drinking, sushi eating, Volvo driving, New York Times reading, body piercing, Hollywood loving, left wing freak show back to Vermont where it belongs." What effect the ad had on Dean's campaign is unknown, but many Republicans were displeased with the ad because they felt that had Dean won in the primaries he would be easy to defeat in the general election. Many Republicans were also unhappy about Club for Growth's support of Rep. Patrick Toomey over the more moderate incumbent, Sen. Arlen Specter in the Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania. Because of Club for Growth's support of Toomey, the Republican National Committee had to commit more resources to the reelection of Sen. Specter. While they may be useful to a campaign, PACs and their 527s are also capable of wreaking havoc when they veer too far from the party line. [41] Mid-campaign the country witnessed the impact of a new 527, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Financed initially by Republican donors, the television ads they produced attacking Kerry's service in Vietnam created a storm of mainstream media coverage including replaying the ads, and discussions of the political consequences to the Kerry campaign. Blogs on the left point up the misinformation in the ads and blogs on the right report how the ads discredit Kerry. The 527 ads have played a crucial role in the campaign. Traditional media and the Internet will continue to become more intertwined. Eventually technology will offer seamless access to Internet and television media. What this does to the political landscape remains to be seen. Conclusion The role of the Internet in raising vast amounts of money via the candidates' Web sites, issue-advocacy groups, and activist blogs has been established in the 2004 election. PACs and 527s, by raising hard and soft money to produce advertising to support a candidate's positions and by encouraging voter turnout, can influence the outcome of elections. It remains to be seen if campaign finance reform will try to stem the tide of money to these advocacy groups. In 2004 we have seen politics on the Internet attempt to influence the selection of candidates; for example, netroots supporters of Howard Dean and Wes Clark, and Club for Growth's support of Patrick Toomey. Some have speculated the next election will see the bipartisan blogosphere divide into a multpartisan blogosphere with candidates representing diverse viewpoints. Blogs are definitely having an impact on mainstream media by fact checking, insisting that their point of view is represented, and providing a blustering critique of media bias. Blogs can also raise issues and provide substantial detail about news stories to readers. However, blogs also depend on mainstream media for investigative reports that provide material for discussion and advocacy. In the polarized, often angry, blogosphere it will be interesting to see if blogs drive the readership farther apart like boxers retreating to corners of the ring or if they can promote an understanding of differing viewpoints. Some blog writers on the left prefer to be called partisan while shunning labels such as liberal or progressive or ideologue. They are progressives who have joined the Democratic Party in order to help elect Democrats. In the Senate race in South Dakota, writers of two blogs failed to disclose that they were paid by the Thune campaign. When a supposedly grassroots program is funded by hidden or manipulative sponsors, it is called astroturf. The next election cycle will likely see more astroturf. Commercialization due to advertising revenues, outside funding, and "corporate" ownership of blogs may also be an issue. The conservative columnist William Safire writes about the future of blogs: "Blogs will compete with op-ed columns for 'views you can use,' and the best will morph out of the pajama game to deliver serious analysis and fresh information, someday prospering with ads and subscriptions. The prospect of profit will bring bloggers in from the meanstream to the mainstream center of comment and local news coverage." [41.5] However, many blog writers hope that blogs will continue to provide free expression and the anything goes, "cacophony" of which Bill Moyers speaks. Politically committed people gathering together in face-to-face groups, after coalescing in communities on the Internet, provide the human potential for a different level of political activity. Moulitsas at Daily Kos writes "For us, blogging is the epicenter of all this that's happening toward a renewed democratic expression. It is community, it is about action, it is about transforming the political system." [42] Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, writes that concentrated wealth, political power, and negative advertising caused campaigns to "become more vicious, more media savvy, more technologically advanced, more expensive and intensive, longer, bigger, and stronger in every way except one. Somewhere along the line they lost the voters....Across the board, Americans -- made hopeless by a hope-killing process--have been leaving politics in droves." [43] The Dean campaign "was the opening salvo in a revolution, the sound of hundreds of thousands of Americans turning off their televisions and embracing the only form of technology that has allowed them to be involved again, to gain control of a process that alienated them decades ago." [44] Is this optimistic view of the power of the Internet the wave of the future? Will people ever turn off their televisions -- give up sports, old sitcoms, grisly detective shows, reality TV, and prepackaged, often slanted news, to be become politically engaged? Will blogs and Meetups take the place of town halls and promote citizen participation? Is it possible that issue advocacy groups might fragment the electorate? One thing is certain, the Internet is an established medium and politics will be affected by its presence. Notes [1] Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet, Political Influentials Online in the 2004 Presidential Campaign (Washington D.C.: The Graduate School of Political Management, George Washington University, Feb.5, 2004), 2-6. Available at: http://www.ipdi.org/UploadedFiles/political%20influentials.pdf Back to text [2] Lenhart, Amanda, et al., The Ever-Shifting Internet Population: A New Look at Internet Access and the Digital Divide (Washington D.C.: Pew Internet & American Life Project, April 16, 2003), 3. Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Shifting_Net_Pop_Report.pdf Back to text. [3] Ibid., 3-4. Back to text. [4] Steve Davis, Larry Elin, and Grant Reeher, Click on Democracy: the Internet's Power to Change Political Apathy into Civic Action (Cambridge, Mass.: Westview Press, 2002), 56-58. Back to text. [5] Joe Trippi, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything (New York: ReganBooks, 2004), xii. Back to text. [6] Glen Justice, "Kerry's Campaign Has Soared from Poorhouse to Penthouse," New York Times, June 27, 2004, p. A1. Retrieved July 18, 2004 from InfoTrac Newspapers database. Back to text. [7] Lisa Getter and Michael Finnegan, "Kerry Is Raising Money at a Record Rate," Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2004. Retrieved July 17, 2004. Back to text [8] Jim Drinkard, "Kerry Must Clear Coffers Before Dem Convention," USA Today, July 9, 2004, Section: News, p 5a. Retrieved July 17, 2004 from Academic Search Premier database. Back to text [9] Jakob Nielsen, "Email Newsletters During Last Week of Presidential Campaign," useit.com. Retrieved Jan. 9, 2005 at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040920_lastweek.html Back to text. [10] Joe Trippi, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything (New York: ReganBooks, 2004), 82. Back to Text. [11] Crumlish, Christian, The Power of Many, (San Francisco: Sybex, 2004). 24. Back to text. [12] Joe Trippi, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything (New York: ReganBooks, 2004), 84,96-99. Back to text [13] Ibid, xi. Back to text. [14] Ezra Klein, "Power Trippi," Washington Monthly, Oct. 2004, 43-47. Available at: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.klein.html Back to text. [15] Matt Stoller in a blog entry on the Democratic Convention Web site. No longer available. Back to text [16] Daniel W. Drezner and Henry Farrell, "Web of Influence," Foreign Policy, November/December 2004. Retrieved Nov. 13, 2004. Available at: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2707&page=0 Back to text. [17] Ben Fritz, Bryan Keefer, and Brandan Nyhan, All the President's Spin, George W. Bush, the Media and the Truth, (New York, Touchstone: 2004). 254. Back to Text [18] Paul Krugman, "The Other Face," New York Times, Dec. 13, 2002. Retrieved Dec. 30, 2004 from InfoTrac Newspapers database. Back to text. [19] "Tip of the Hat, a Campaign Desk Honor Roll of Sorts," The Campaign Desk, Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved Sept. 29, 2004 at http://www.campaigndesk.org/archives/000950.asp Back to text [20] Paul Boutin, "The Blogfather's Hit List," Wired, Feb. 2004. Retrieved Dec. 30, 2004. Available at: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/start.html?pg=10 Back to text. [21] Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, Aug. 12, 2004. Available at: http://instapundit.com/archives/017139.php. Back to text. [22] Daniel Okrent, "The Public Editor; An advocate for Times Reader Introduces Himself," New York Times, December 7, 2003. Available at: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html? res=9A04EFDC123DF934A35751C1A9659C8B63&n=Top%2fOpinion%2fThe%20Public%20Editor Back to text. [23] Daniel Okrent, "The Public Editor; Q. How was Your Vacation? A. Pretty Newsy, Thanks," New York Times, September 12, 2004. Available at: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04E5DB1230F931A2575AC0A9629C8B63&n= Top%2fOpinion%2fThe%20Public%20Editor Back to text. [23.5] Elizabeth Jensen, "Conservative TV Group to Air Anti-Kerry Film," latimes.com, Oct. 9, 2004. Retrieved Jan. 18, 2005 at: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-na-sinclair9oct09,1,4817545.story? coll=la-home-headlines Back to text [23.8] T. Trent Gegax, "Stolen Honor", MSNBC.com, Oct. 20, 2004. Retrieved Jan. 18, 2004 at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6293163/site/newsweek/ Back to text. [24] Lev Grossman, "Blogs have Their Day," Time Magazine, Dec. 27, 2004/Jan. 3, 2005. Back to text [25] "CBS Fires 4 Who Worked on Faulty Report on Bush's Guard Record," New York Times, January 10, 2005. Back to text. [26] James Lileks, "The Blog of the Year, or the Year of the Blog?" Newhouse News Service, Dec. 22, 2004. Available at: http://newhousenews.com/archive/lileks122204.html Back to text. [27] Josh Chafetz, Oxblog, Jan. 3, 2004. Available at: http://oxblog.blogspot.com/2005_01_02_oxblog_archive.html#110472947850736161 Back to text. [28] Lev Grossman and Anita Hamilton, "Meet Joe Blog," Time Magazine, June 13, 2004. Retrived July, 27, 2004 at http://blog.maisnam.com/files/articles/2004.06.14/blog.time.article.htm Back to text. [29] From comments by Matt Stoller at the Politics Online Conference, Institute for Politics Democracy & the Internet, George Washington University, March 19, 2004. Back to text. [30] Joe Trippi, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything (New York: ReganBooks, 2004), 89. Back to text. [31] Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, aka Kos, Daily Kos, Oct. 8, 2004. Available at: http://tlaw.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/9/01752/9202 Back to text. [32] eBay: Sold on Grid, eWeek, Aug. 30, 2004. Available at: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1640234,00.asp Back to text. [33] Bill Moyers, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, May 13, 2004. Blog segment 36.33. Available at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1895389 Back to text. [34] James Lileks, "Every Laptop a Truth Squad," Newhouse News Service, Jan. 28, 2004. Retrieved Jan. 3, 2005 at http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/lileks012804.html Back to text. [35] "Cyber Ads", Newshour with Jim Lehrer, PBS, Feb. 20, 2004. Transcript and audio and video links available at: "Cyber Ads," Online Newshour. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june04/cyberads_02-20.html Back to text. [36] Ibid. Back to text. [37] Living Room Candidate, Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2004, American Museum of the Moving Image. Available at: http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/index.php Back to text. [38] Details derived primarily from opensecrets.org, "Types of Advocacy Groups," Center for Responsive Politics http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/types.asp Back to text [39] Getter Lisa , "With 527s New Power Players Take Position," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 1, 2004. Article may be purchased from the Times archives. Back to Text. [40] Glen Justice, "Republicans Rush to Form New Finance Groups," New York Times, May 29, 2004 p. A1. Retrieved June 19, 2004 from InfoTrac Newspapers database. Back to text. [41] Julia Malone, "Club for Growth Swings Hard at Both Political Parties," Austin American-Statesman, Feb 15, 2004, A17. Retrieved Jan. 3, 2004 from InfoTrac Newspaper. Back to text. [41.5] William Safire, "Op-Ed Columnist: The Depressed Press," New York Times, Jan. 17, 2005. Back to text [42] Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, aka Kos, Daily Kos, Oct. 12, 2004. Available at: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/12/9106/5742 Back to text. [43] Joe Trippi, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything (New York: ReganBooks, 2004) xvi-xvii Back to Text. [44] Ibid. xviii-xix. Back to text. By Therese Olson Updated: 4/7/05 |
CONTENTS Candidate Websites Political Web Logs Internet Media Conclusion Notes BLOGROLL Talking Points Memo Instapundit Power Line andrewsullivan.com Oxblog Wonkette Eschaton MyDD Daily Kos OTHER WEB SITES Meetup Internet Archive WayBack Machine C-SPAN.org Blogads Technorati Living Room Candidate opensecrets.org |
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